Adding Coral's

[xzebra007]

I finally cycled my tank and added a pair of clowns 2 weeks ago and a zoa this last Friday. Tank is now 5 week's old (which I know is very new). I now have the this is real stage going on in my head...LOL and getting excited to do more. I want to add other corals, but want to take it slow and do it the right way. Looking for some suggestions and guidance from fellow reefers that might be able to assist to add LPS or softies. At this time I am not thinking of SPS.

Ammonia is 0 with Nitrates at 1 and Salinity being 1.026. Just ordered a Ca, Alk, Mg test kit(s) which will be here later this week.

I have a Waterbox Marine x 35.1, 22 gallon with a 11 gallon sump, running a Nero 3, AI Prime HD16 with just filter socks and some MarinePure Gems in the sump. I do have an ATO, looking to add a Protein Skimmer down the road.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I am a bit new to the hobby!

 

[JCM]

Corals don't add much bioload at all. Theoretically you could add a hundred corals tomorrow if you wanted and it wouldn't affect your tank.

New tanks run the risk of instability though, so you could easily loose them all if something swings wildly. Only you can decide how much to risk.

 

[xzebra007]

Corals don't add much bioload at all. Theoretically you could add a hundred corals tomorrow if you wanted and it wouldn't affect your tank.

New tanks run the risk of instability though, so you could easily loose them all if something swings wildly. Only you can decide how much to risk.

Thanks JCM appreciate the response.

Thus I do understand, but looking for recommendations how others that know best and how they start a new tank. Is there anything I can do to help the swings or should I be patient and add corals later?

I see many people adding them within months so I guess not sure when that safe point is

 

[JCM]

Thanks JCM appreciate the response.

Thus I do understand, but looking for recommendations how others that know best and how they start a new tank. Is there anything I can do to help the swings or should I be patient and add corals later?

I see many people adding them within months so I guess not sure when that safe point is

Happy to help! I've been at this for over 15 years now and I fall into the camp of adding corals quickly. My first coral went into my new tank day 3 (still happy and healthy) and a dozen others went in shortly after. I'm also in the camp of using quality live rock from the start, so things are stable quickly.

Best of luck with it.

 

[xzebra007]

Happy to help! I've been at this for over 15 years now and I fall into the camp of adding corals quickly. My first coral went into my new tank day 3 (still happy and healthy) and a dozen others went in shortly after. I'm also in the camp of using quality live rock from the start, so things are stable quickly.

Best of luck with it.

Do you have any recommendations or can offer any assistance?

 

[JCM]

Do you have any recommendations or can offer any assistance?

Im not very familiar with your tank.

Did you use any live rock to start? Or was it all dry at the beginning?

If it was all dry, I'd wait a few more weeks. Though soft corals are very forgiving.

 

[xzebra007]

Im not very familiar with your tank.

Did you use any live rock to start? Or was it all dry at the beginning?

If it was all dry, I'd wait a few more weeks. Though soft corals are very forgiving.

I used CaribSea’s LifeRock, with the live sand.

 

[Nick Steele]

I started my tank December 8th. First coral (Xenia) in on December 17th. And by Feb 1st I had rainbow acans, monti spongodes, frogspawn, gsp, rock flower nems, zoas and a candy cane coral. Everything did great besides the frogspawn (withered away in a few months) the candy cane (I messed up with a peroxide dip so my fault).

Since then I had a few set backs that made coral upset but I haven’t completely lost many corals over the past two years.

 

[Fishpro7897]

If you are asking for recommendations I would recommend a hammer or candy cane coral

 

[JCM]

I used CaribSea’s LifeRock, with the live sand.

I'm not familiar with that rock. If it was all dry when put in the tank I would proceed slowly.

 

[xzebra007]

I started my tank December 8th. First coral (Xenia) in on December 17th. And by Feb 1st I had rainbow acans, monti spongodes, frogspawn, gsp, rock flower nems, zoas and a candy cane coral. Everything did great besides the frogspawn (withered away in a few months) the candy cane (I messed up with a peroxide dip so my fault).

Since then I had a few set backs that made coral upset but I haven’t completely lost many corals over the past two years.

Do you have any recommendations or suggestions that you could share of what might have made your tank stable for success?

 

[TnFishwater98]

Like @JCM mentioned good quality LR. So if your LR comes from the gulf/ocean water you’re good, if it came from a LFS and they stock LR pretty often then you should probably take it a little slower. If you started with dry rock, you should start with one hardy coral like a candy cane or GSP and watch it. If it does well after a month or so add another hardy coral. Just take it slower.
LR from ocean>Man made LR from LFS >Dry Rock
These are my opinions, not trying to state @JCM thoughts, just my interpretation of his post and my personal experience

 

[JCM]

Like @JCM mentioned good quality LR. So if your LR comes from the gulf/ocean water you’re good, if it came from a LFS and they stock LR pretty often then you should probably take it a little slower. If you started with dry rock, you should start with one hardy coral like a candy cane or GSP and watch it. If it does well after a month or so add another hardy coral. Just take it slower.
LR from ocean>Man made LR from LFS >Dry Rock
These are my opinions, not trying to state @JCM thoughts, just my interpretation of his post and my personal experience

Those are my thoughts exactly. Completely agree.

 

[TnFishwater98]

You can see the difference. 1pic LR from LFS, 2nd pic LR from the Gulf

 

[Nick Steele]

Do you have any recommendations or suggestions that you could share of what might have made your tank stable for success?

Took time for me. For the first 7-10 months I was using a bad salt mix was mixing at 11dkh and I would fluctuate between 10-13 dkh almost on the weekly. I switched salts and started getting back to stable dkh around 8. A few months after the switch I had a huge dino bloom that lasted for 4-6 months. Once I get rid of dinos and upped my clean up crew to normal (had die off from dinos) I started to see explosive growth from sps. And I would finally call my tank stable now at around 18 months old.